When the sun is setting, between dusk and darkness, there is a moment when the light turns blue. And the world stops for a heartbeat.
There are five “ghost metro stations” beneath Helsinki. They were excavated at various points over the years, only for plans for new metro lines to change. Most remain unused. One has been used for squash courts.
I could also tell you that the Helsinki (and Espoo) metro is the northernmost metro system in the world. And that it has the world’s only undersea metro station.
None of this changes the fact that the daily commute by metro is a very boring affair.
Stuart, Alanna and Kiara took me out for dinner to celebrate my birthday.
Over the years, Stuart and I have perfected the art of maximising the number of dishes you can taste in a restaurant. We never order the same dish, and often go half-and-half on starters, sometimes even on mains.
The girls complicate the maths, as they are just as keen to taste everything. With you have half a starter to start with, sharing it with two other people tends to leave you with very little.
When the dish is very small – or exceptionally good – we claim it is super spicy. But even that doesn’t always work anymore.
Helsinki city centre is beautiful – when you remember to look up. Many of the buildings have interesting details, colours and statues, that you rarely notice. In all honesty, despite walking the same road twice a week for years, I still get surprised.
I am sure the styles have very important-sounding official names. I know none of them. But they are pretty.
There was a kids’ comic book fair in Helsinki today. If not for a friend who sent us a note, we never would’ve known about it. And unfortunately, based on how few people there were, not everyone has such a clued-up friend.
I often wonder how much cool stuff we miss, just because we never see the ads.
But we made it to this one. The best activity was designing their own characters for a comic graveyard. Alanna’s two-tailed cat zombie laughed out loud while scaring others and swinging. Kiara’s 10,000-year-old worm was actually not dead. He was too stubborn to die – but liked hanging out with the dead. But then again, he was bad at math, so who knows how old he really was…
Now we wait to see if either of these characters makes the cut for the actual comic book.
I met a friend for dinner tonight. We didn’t stay late – and therefore it took me by surprise how early it gets dark. Again.
Winter is coming.
A good night out is a good night out.
Not much more needs to be said.
A city is always better with some element of water, be it the sea, a lake or a river. There are some cities that are nice despite not having any. But not many.
Considering I don’t want a boat, and very rarely even swim in the sea, I really can’t tell you why I find it so important.
It just is.
It’s a pity how rarely you actually go to any of the cool spots in Helsinki in your day-to-day life.
Foreign visitors are always a great excuse.
The older I get, the less likely I am to order a steak in a restaurant. It’s heavy. And often quite boring.
But a really, really good steak?
Still the food of gods.
Somewhat by accident Alanna, Kiara and I ended up in Design Week’s kids’ workshop.
The girls got to design fashionable outfits, new houses and a – best of all – a mascot that they could then program to make sounds, flash lights, or show images.
An accident to repeat.
